


The Ghost of Christmases Past

by Evealle



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Roski, Whovengers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-27
Updated: 2013-01-27
Packaged: 2017-11-27 02:22:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/657008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evealle/pseuds/Evealle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They can mark their relationship by their Christmases.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ghost of Christmases Past

**Author's Note:**

> Written for bad-wolf-victorious in the 2012 Roski'd Secret Santa.

_The first Christmas_  was, there was no other word for it, awkward. Loki still felt a great deal of antagonism towards Midgard. Rose still hated being stuck on the parallel world. She had made an effort to capture the Christmas spirit, though she wasn’t quite feeling it herself, but Loki was completely uncooperative. 

“I do not see the point, Rose,” he sighed, stretched out on the couch the afternoon before Christmas, a hand to his temple as if his head ached. “It’s just another stupid Midgardian festival. A holiday of pagan origins, dressed in the trappings of religion to conceal the fact that you all just want an excuse to demand expensive presents and get completely smashed.”

Rose glared at him and stalked out of the room.

But she still had made an effort. She decorated the flat, put up a tree. She hung stockings and got Loki a few presents, though on that that afternoon she wished she hadn’t bothered. And on Christmas morning, she burst into Loki’s room and dragged him from his bed, insisting he at least pretend to have a good time. 

She was trying to pretend herself. Pretend she had a life she liked living. Pretend she wasn’t still aching inside from the scene that had played out on the beach, in Bad Wolf Bay. Pretend she didn’t still cry herself to sleep sometimes or toss through fitful dreams about the Doctor.

She knew that there was something hurting Loki too, something from that past life of his he talked so little of. So, it was for both of them that she staged Christmas, hoping to bring a little cheer into their half lives.

Loki sat down at the Christmas tree with extreme reluctance that morning. “I still don’t see the point,” he muttered.

She pressed her lips together. “Course there’s a point.” She handed him one of his presents. “You’ve gotta open this.”

He stared down at the present in his lap. “What’s this?”

“A present, you daft man,” she replied, a corner of her mouth twisting into a smile.

“I didn’t…I did not request a gift.” His finger traced lightly over the shinny green paper. “I didn’t think to get you anything.”

She shrugged. “I know. It’s okay.” He looked up to meet her eyes, and Rose frowned to see his expression. “You a’right?”

“Yes.” He cleared his throat, nodding, quickly turning away and turning his attention to unwrapping the present. “Thank you.”

“You haven’t even opened it yet,” she laughed. Interesting. He had looked touched.

* * *

 _By the second Christmas_ , they had been joined by one more. Rose had traveled back to her world to help save the universe, and when she returned she brought with her the Metacrisis Doctor.

Over the course of the year, they’d slowly begun to accept and understand each other. Loki had come to enjoy her company, and he believed that she felt the same. He had offered his services working on the dimension canon, glad to assist her with something she was so passionate about. Yet, once she left, life had felt oddly empty. The flat felt like another void he was trapped in, silent and empty. Loki had impatiently, even eagerly, awaited her return. 

But when she did return, she was different. She had suffered yet another heartbreaking scene at Bad Wolf Bay - for by then he knew all of the first one - but then had ended up with the man she always wanted in the first place. 

Loki paced the flat on Christmas Eve. She had been phoning him at odd intervals as she traveled back to England, letting him know where she was and when she thought she’d be back. She warned him she was bringing a guest for Christmas. With a sigh, he had resigned himself for Christmas with Mickey or, even worse, her mother. Mostly, however, he just wanted her back. He wanted it so much he was slightly concerned.

_She’s just a Midgardian girl, a mortal. Friend, she may have become, but nothing more,_ he thought angrily, twitching back the curtain to look out at the darkening street. His heart sank. She had arrived. She was there, just outside, but with someone else, and not stupid Mickey or annoying Jackie. A tall, lanky man in a blue suit.

Loki scowled and met them at the door. Rose threw her arms around him in greeting, and for a moment his expression lightened. Then she grabbed the other man’s hand and pulled him, smiling fondly at him. Left to close the door behind them as Rose began showing the man around the flat, Loki clenched his teeth and glared after them.

Christmas day was by no means better. By that time, it had been explained to Loki exactly who the stranger was, and already Loki hated the man. As he watched Rose wake the Doctor that morning, who was sleeping on the couch, with a kiss, he began to resign himself to being ignored. To being second best. Again.

The day progressed much as he would have predicted. Rose and the Doctor continued in their display of affections. They giggled and hugged and cuddled, and all in all made Loki feel positively sick. He took note that even at such last minute notice, Rose had managed to get the Doctor Christmas presents. And that she seemed more pleased to receive the Doctor’s kiss (since the man had nothing to give her) than Loki’s own carefully picked out and immaculately wrapped gift.

Loki scowled at the man through the Christmas film the three watched together. He had been relegated to taking the small armchair while the Doctor stole his seat on the couch, Rose nestled at his side.

He made his excuses to leave their company while the evening was still early. Rose acknowledged him with a quick, “Okay, night!” Adding a distracted, “Merry Christmas!” as he left the room. 

He knew he wouldn’t be missed.

* * *

 _The third Christmas_  took a long time coming. The year stretched out as the human Doctor moved in with them, moved into Rose’s bed. The animosity between him and Loki rose to an unbearable level, breaking out in icy fights and struggles for dominance. Loki tried to spend as much time as possible out of the flat, and for the first part of the year Rose saw little of him.

She also began to feel…strange around the human Doctor. She wanted to love him, she honestly did. She certainly liked being with him; she enjoyed the intimacy they shared. But she kept realizing that she was just pretending that he was the other Doctor,  _her_  Doctor. And he gave her constant reminders that he was a completely different man. 

She began to pull away from him, and they began to fight. And when he finally left,  moving out with a bitter goodbye and a promise to stay out of her life since she didn’t want him, Loki was there to support her, holding her tightly as she cried and waving away her apologies for pushing him away in previous months. 

Slowly, they became friends again. Then, all of a sudden, they became something more. It started with a kiss, sitting on the couch, just finishing a movie. Impulsively, Rose lunged forward and pressed her lips to his. There was only a moment’s hesitation before his hands slid to her waist, pulling her closer while her fingers twisted through his hair. 

It was just the beginning - both for the evening and for this new page of their interactions. The next months altered everything about their relationship except the closeness they already shared. And, as it did, they each began to discover the happiness they had both been missing.

Christmas morning dawned bright, pale sunlight striking the thin layer of white snow. Rose opened her eyes cautiously, blinded by the light that streamed through the window. She groaned in protest, and a slender arm snaked around her waist. Loki pulled her in, pressing a kiss to the back of her neck. “Merry Christmas,” he whispered in her ear.

She laughed softly. “You hate this holiday.”

Snuggling against her, he made a small murmur of concession. “But I think it will grow on me this year.”

“Mmm,” she nodded. “It does seem to be gettin’ to a good start, doesn’ it?”


End file.
